Modern Warfare 2 Ultimate Setup

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Release day is almost here, is your gaming rig ready?

By Scott Lowe

As one of the most anticipated games of the year, Infinity Ward's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 promises to be an explosive first-person shooter experience, filled with multinational conflicts that require your itchy trigger finger and a whole lot of bullets. But before you mount up to fight terror around the world, you need to make sure you've got the necessary tools – in this case, a badass gaming rig worthy of all of the carnage. If we learned anything from Call of Duty 2 and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, it is that Infinity Ward pours a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into creating an immersive combat experience, placing considerable emphasis on visual and audio presentation. To have bullets flying around on anything less than a nice high-resolution display, full surround sound system or quality pair of headphones, seems like a great injustice -- one you can remedy with our picks of the best HDTVs, audio systems, and headphones for the job.

The Frontline: HDTVs Modern Warfare 2 places players in various locales around the globe, including Brazil, Afghanistan, Russia, and the United States. With such a broad range of settings, Modern Warfare 2 promises to have a diverse color palate of high-definition graphics that should be shown on something more than your 7 year old CRT. So, if you were to be making a pre or post-release purchase for the purpose of getting the most out of your Modern Warfare 2 experience, what kind of HDTV should you be in the market for? Well, due to the fact that Modern Warfare 2 is going for a gritty war-torn vibe, you're going to want to have a display with a wide color gamut and hefty contrast group to squeeze every bit of color you can out of it. To that end, we'd recommend checking out an LED-backlit display, which have drastically wider color ranges than a standard LCD HDTV. LED-backlit displays also consume less energy than standard LCD technology, which we'll be handy for all the hours you are inevitably going to log in order to max out your prestige level before the end of November.

Unfortunately, LCD displays with LED-backlighting have a sizable premium attached to them at the moment, but it is possible to find a screen over 40" for under $2,000. Of Samsung's offering, one of the most highly recommended solutions in the sub-$2,000 range is the 40" UN40B6000VFXZA, which features full 1080p resolution, a 3,000,000:1 contrast ratio, four HDMI inputs, and a built-in HDTV tuner for when you need to take a break from pwning n00bs in Hardcore Team Deathmatch. The UN40B6000VFXZA has an MSRP of $1,999.99, but you can find the model for much lower given various retailer sales. As of press time (11.06.09) it was available for $1,499.99 at Best Buy and Amazon.

If you aren't a Samsung fan, we'd also recommend checking out LG's LH90 series, which comes in 42", 47", and 55" LED-backlit variations and features full 1080p resolution, 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio, four HDMI inputs, and 240Hz refresh rates. The 42" LH90 has an MSRP of $1,799.95 but can be found on Amazon and others (again, as of press time) for as low as $1,269.

The Second Wave: Surround Sound First-person shooters rely on surround sound to let players know which direction the hail of gunfire is coming from, without it players are playing with a limited scope, and with the fiercely competitive multiplayer of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, there is no doubt that Modern Warfare 2 players will need as much of a competitive edge as they can get. For those who have patient neighbors and enough space to pull off having a full surround sound system connected to their entertainment centers, there are two options when it comes to surround systems – home theater in a box systems or building it from the ground up. While those with serious change, time, effort, and interest are more than willing to build their system component-by-component, there are plenty of simpler, more cost-efficient solutions in the all-in-one arena.

We tend to avoid the Blu-ray/DVD combo systems because they are often times cramming too much value into one package and quality is sacrificed. Home theater in a box systems with integrated disc players are also typically lacking in the external input department, meaning you can only attach a few extra audio sources. For those looking for something sans a disc drive, Onkyo offers a wide range of multichannel systems at reasonable prices. One solution is the Onkyo HT-S5200, which is a full 7.1 surround sound system with HD video passthrough for seamless entertainment center integration. Pumping 130-watts per channel, users will experience the full three-dimensional audio that Infinity Ward intended, and through most retailers, for less than $500. Pricegrabber has the HT-S5200 for as low as $209.63.

Going Stealth: Gaming Headphones If you live in a dorm, with your family, or just in close proximity to grumpy neighbors, gaming headphones may be a helpful solution for you without sacrificing the competitive edge provided by a full-on surround sound system. Within the headphone arena, there are two prevailing types: simulated surround and "true" surround. The difference? How many speakers ("drivers" in headphone speak) are in each ear. While the driver's distance from your ear is locked in, in either situation, multi-driver headphones use advanced mixing technologies to dissect the sound and make it feel like you are listening to a full on surround system. Simulated surround, however, does the same thing except it doesn't require the use of multiple drivers, and instead processes the sound in a way that creates a similar experience through just two stereo channels.

Manufacturers of either camp will preach to you all day about the benefits of their respective technologies, but we've found that with the right products, the two technologies closely rival each other. So far, we've found the Astro A40 (Check out our full review) audio system to be the most versatile gaming headphone system available. A stereo simulated surround system, the Astro A40s integrate with both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, as well as PCs through standard audio connections. The A40s have a good feel, plenty of breathing room for your ears, and a dedicated mixamp system that allows users to control the mix of game audio and in-game voice communications on the fly. As we said, the A40s are stereo, but their onboard Dolby processing does a great job of recreating the full 5.1 experience. Unfortunately the A40s come with a cost, $249.99 to be exact, but they are well worth the cash.

If you're looking to personalize your A40s, Astro recently launched their speaker tag personalization system, which allows users to create their own graphical speaker tags that go on the side of the headphone cups. If you aren't feeling so creative, Astro offers an array of default designs, as well as their Artist Series, which features art from Penny Arcade and Upper Playground.